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India ready
for voting right to NRIs, but PM mum on Black List
WSN
Bureau
 NEW DELHI:
Trying to remove a massive anomaly that prevents non-resident
citizens from voting in choosing the law makers of the country,
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has finally announced that
plans are afoot to enable Indians living abroad to vote in the next
general elections.
Responding to a
long pending demand of the non-residents, that was also reflected by
members of his Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians, the PM
termed the desire legitimate and said, "We are working on this issue
and I sincerely hope that they will get a chance to vote by the time
of the next regular general elections."
The Prime
Minister, who has so far done little about banishing and trashing to
the dustbin the so-called Black List of Sikhs, went further and
said, "In fact, I would go a step further and ask why more overseas
Indians should not return home to join politics and public life as
they are increasingly doing in business and academia.”
Ironically,
while the PM was speaking at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conference
here, the conclave witnessed no mention of the Black List despite
the fact that the Union Home Ministry has often expressed the view
that it was time to prune and clear the Black List of Sikhs who the
government perceived were somehow had some links with the
aspirational movement of the 1980s and 90s.
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Such a long
examination
Under the
Conduct of Election Rules 1961, the ordinary NRI is excluded while
various classes of people are given the facility to cast absentee or
postal ballots. They include not only ‘special voters’ such as the
President, Vice-President, Governors, and Union and State Ministers,
but also ‘service voters,’ a category that includes armed forces
personnel and staff in diplomatic missions. A number of countries,
from the United States and Canada to Argentina and the Philippines,
make it possible for their overseas citizens to vote. India will
have to amend the Representation of the People Act by inserting a
sub-section that classifies citizens who take up “employment,
education or otherwise outside India” as ordinary residents. It was
introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2006 but made a number of political
interests uneasy, and was referred to a parliamentary standing
committee. Ever since, the Union Law Ministry has been examining it.
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In any case, as
New Delhi is trying to court People of Indian Origin from various
parts of the world, it is anomalous that some of itys citizens are
not allowed to come home and no one is permitted to cast his or her
vote. This clear disenfranchising of NRIs was being seen by many
human rights activists in the Diaspora as "a serious infirmity in
the electoral process".
Under Article 19
of the Representation of the People Act 1950, only those “ordinarily
resident” in a constituency are eligible to be registered in the
electoral rolls. Since most NRIs either study or work abroad, often
for extended periods, they lose their status as ordinary residents
under Section 20 of the Act and are liable to be struck off the
electoral rolls. As for those who remain on the electoral rolls, by
virtue of not being struck off before the next revision, the only
way is to cast a ballot in person, which means returning home (which
may not quite be home).
Dr. Singh took
on board several familiar grievances expressed by NRIs, including
the slow pace of decision-making.
The PM lamented
that the “foreign direct investment by overseas Indians is low and
far short of potential" but did not touch the subject of how
corruption and communal situation in the country and a rising wave
of Hindutva kept many away. The conclave itself failed to connect
the shrinking democratic norms and the people's movements being
crushed through military means with the low self esteem that the
country has in the world community.
The PM may have
spoken about India's "inherent political and economic resilience"
and a good growth rate but what was more important was the mention
of Arjun Sen Gupta Committee report that he conveniently skipped.
Many experts
said it was strange that the educated, elite section of the NRIs was
refusing to engage with the rising tide of Hindutva forces within
the country, and the fact that both Congress and the BJP were
harboring notions of soft and hard Hindutva. How can any true
democratic exercise of elections take place in such a scenario. As
it is, most Indian elections are meaningless and a fight to get the
right to choose between the devil and the deep sea is hardly a right
worth fighting for or begging for.
Such demands by
the NRIs at the Parvasi Divas style functions only lend more
legitimacy to the kind of skewed view of democracy that India
peddles.
13
January 2010
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